The Netflix series “Russian Doll” is a popular, thought-provoking show about a self-sabotaging 36-year-old stuck in a seemingly endless time loop.
It’s also an awesome advertisement for star Natasha Lyonne’s perfectly tousled curly bangs.
As Nadia Vulvokov, Lyonne — who wrote and produced the Netflix series as well — rocks a wild, auburn mop that cuts a wavy path across her forehead. Instantly, the courageous do placed the Manhattan-born actress in the hall of fame of bangin’ beauties, including Bettie Page, Brigitte Bardot and Zooey Deschanel, who have all inspired real-world women to weigh the benefits of fringe.
This notoriously fickle hairstyle is popping up off-screen, too, says Martha Ellen Mabry, hair stylist and owner of the Williamsburg-based, wave-friendly salon, Headchop. She says she’s been doing versions of the “Russian Doll” cut “multiple times a day,” after her clients show up with the actress’ photo requesting the trendy look.
The good news, Mabry says, is that women with all different hair textures can confidently test out an eyebrow-grazing chop. They just have to make sure that they — and even more important, their stylist — understand the twists and turns of their particular curls before making the first snip, she says.
“You have to make it doable for each person’s curl type,” she says. “Someone with tighter curls, maybe you’re not going to cut their bangs as short because they’re gonna spring up higher . . . whereas if someone has a looser, wider curl, we’re gonna cut them a bit lower, because they’re going to jump a different way.”
For this reason, Mabry favors cutting the hair while it’s dry. That way, she says she can “see the hair in its natural state, and anticipate what it’s going to do.”
But no matter the cut, the freshly fringed should be prepared to give their hair a bit of extra love, says Candace Witherspoon, a stylist at curl destination spot Devachan Salon.
Witherspoon says that, recently, she’s been cutting up to six new sets of bangs per day. And because the style can be “high maintenance,” she says she always asks clients who are considering getting them if they “like” doing their hair.
“It’s the first thing you see, so you kind of always have to make it look good,” she says. This usually involves some maintenance in the morning, she says, where you have to “spritz [the bangs] with water, add a little more gel or cream, coil it with your fingers just to get back that definition.”
The additional effort can be worth it, Witherspoon says. Changing up their style can give a client a fresh burst of “confidence . . . when she sees her hair in a new way,” she says.
As Mabry points out, the commitment to bangs isn’t all that big, because while the grow-out process can sometimes be painful, it’s actually pretty quick.
She says the awkward phase only lasts a month or two, and it’s easier to grow out curly bangs than pole-straight ones.
“They wind into your other hair, so that softens the blow a little bit,” Mabry says, adding that frequent trims can help “prune” and “angle” the hair, rather than turning it into a stout “shelf.”
Witherspoon agrees that when it comes to trying out the style, there’s only one mane misstep a bang-curious person can make.
Don’t try cutting them at home, she warns. “When a client cuts her own bangs, they always cut them a little bit too short, or they add too much hair from the back, so it’s like a mushroom,” Witherspoon says. “It’s really funny, because [as the stylist], you always know what happened.”
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